Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing and unabated destruction of indigenous Armenian populations, cultural heritage sites, and Christian Armenian religious sites, in Artsakh has entered a new and more sinister phase.
Azerbaijani state structures have ramped up their campaigns to erroneously present Artsakh as historically Azeri following their recent forced removal of the region’s entire native Armenian population. This time, their tactics include promoting petro-dollar funded luxury travel tours, academic engagement projects, and geopolitical realignment initiatives in the territories of the Artaskh Republic, the 301 news site reported.
This new level of genocide ongoing, and its denial, clearly aims to buttress anti-Armenian false narratives advanced by Azerbaijan to erase the living proof of Armenian, millennial presence and cultural production in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
Through exploiting Artsakh’s commercial, institutional, and natural resources, and assets, vis a vis these new campaigns, Azerbaijan continues to misappropriate Armenian (and world cultural heritage sites), artifacts, and tangible, as well as intangible cultural treasures and traditions. The erasure of an entire people is now being whitewashed, commodified, and rebranded under the guise of tourism, academia, and business ventures.
American travelers are now being invited on “selective” trips to a “new” destination in “Azerbaijan.”
That destination? Artsakh—the very same region that just months ago suffered the systematic ethnic cleansing of more than 120,000 indigenous Armenians.
Recent investigations in this regard have uncovered the activities of multiple tourism agencies, including luxury travel groups endorsed by Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure, who are currently marketing “exclusive excursions” to Artsakh. Travel agents have excitedly described memorable moments eating the region’s “famous” foods, such as a certain “flatbread with greens.” The culinary delight noted as Azeri is, in fact, the ancient, traditional Artsakh Armenian dish, “Jingyalov Hats,” whose native creators are now refugees, victims of ethnic cleansing. These agencies are “discreetly” targeting affluent Western travelers for “adventure tourism” trips in occupied Artsakh–exotifying genocide and selling it as a holiday.
Such grotesque ironies are the result of Azerbaijan’s genocide against Armenians and its active rebranding of stolen land, culture, and heritage as its own, all while the world’s institutions turn a blind eye and, far worse, participate. These trips are not publicized widely–instead, they are offered selectively to avoid public scrutiny, backlash, and human rights concerns. This covert marketing strategy signals a calculated campaign to reframe Azeri war crimes and anchor the ill gotten gains of genocide as luxury experiences.
Adding insult to injury, Dr. Jennifer Wistrand, a representative of the Woodrow Wilson Center, recently attended a global policy forum in Stepanakert, the capital of the Armenian Republic of Artsakh, now under Azerbaijani military occupation and control. The participation of U.S.-backed academics, and others, in events held on ethnically cleansed land is an unconscionable endorsement of this illegal occupation. It underscores a disturbing complicity among academic institutions that continue to sanitize their involvement through the language of so-called diplomacy and “stability,” ignoring the glaring reality of forced depopulation and cultural destruction.
A wide range of individuals, from around the world, are now calling upon all international media outlets, humanitarian organizations, and governments, as well as legal professionals, scholars, and international human rights groups to unequivocally and without prejudice, take a stand against genocide, continuing human rights abuses, and the consequences of war crimes left unpunished.
- Boycott all companies doing business in and with Azerbaijan until they cease collaborating with war criminals and stop marketing travel to ethnically cleansed regions. Some of these companies are featured in Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure;
- Demand transparency from academic and economic institutions regarding their participation in events on lands occupied via genocide;
- Condemn the Azerbaijani government’s genocidal campaign and its efforts to erase and appropriate Armenian cultural heritage;
- Hold U.S. and European institutions accountable for their silent complicity and profiteering in the aftermath of ethnic cleansing.
